The economy of the United States, if not of the world, depends to a great extent on fleets of large trucks for the distribution of goods, such as foods, consumer products, durable goods, and even industrial equipment. There are many manufacturers of such trucks, which concern primarily, but are not limited to, class 7 or class 8 over-the-road trucks. Once these trucks are manufactured, they require shipment or transportation to an individual customer or company for whom the truck was made, or to a dealer who sells or leases these trucks. The most obvious method to transport these trucks is by driving them directly to their destination. This method has disadvantages, at least because each truck requires a driver, who must be paid for his or her services and for whom return transportation must be arranged.
In order to overcome the necessity of a driver for delivering each truck, a variety of techniques have been devised to use a first truck that will carry or tow one or more additional trucks to the desired destination. Examples of these devices can be found, by way of illustration, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,555,214, and 4,949,985.
Common to the use of devices such as those described in the foregoing patents is the need to remove and store for transport the left and right axles of the rear wheels of the truck being towed. This is because those axles are connected to the drive train of the towed vehicle and, unless they are removed, the drive train of the towed vehicle will engage during transport, leading to mechanical damage to the towed vehicle.
Typically, these axles from the towed vehicle have been stored in haphazard fashion in either the towed vehicle or the towing vehicle. For example, one method has been to lock the left and right rear axles in the cab of the towed vehicle. Although this method provides for security of the axles, often the axles are left to roll around in the cab of the towed vehicle, subjecting the axles and/or the cab to damage. As the cab is part of a new vehicle to be delivered, damage to the cab is particularly disadvantageous.
Another method of stowing the axles has been to secure them across the truck frames of the towed vehicle. Typically this is done by wrapping the axles in plastic to protect them from the elements, and then using U-bolts, nuts and steel plates to secure the axles to the towed truck frame rails. A related method is to secure the removed axles to the towed truck frame rails by wrapping banding around the axles and the rails. While these methods have the advantage of simplicity, the U-bolts or wrapping can easily be undone by a would-be thief, leading to loss of the axles. In addition, the wrapping or U-bolts can come loose during transport, possibly leading to product damage, accident and/or injury to other motorists.
What is needed is an apparatus and method for securing the axles of a towed vehicle. The invention disclosed herein provides such an improved apparatus and method. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.